Rabat – The increase of sextortion and electronic crimes have prompted Morocco’s General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) has set up five counter-cybercrime laboratories.

While Morocco previously had just one police brigade specializing in cybercrime, the DGSN has steeped its effort to counter e-crimes by adding five more centers across Morocco, including Rabat, Marrakech, Fez, Casablanca and Guelmim.

The DGSN, headed by Abdellatif Hammouchi, has recently received several complaints about sextortion and defamation on the internet and theft of credit cards. It was reported that criminals mostly target victims from Morocco and abroad by using fake female profiles to trap officials and people of different ages.

According to Al Massae, perpetrators of such cybercrimes often operate on Facebook and other social media sites, through fraudulent employment and retail announcements, which require victims to make payments and submit credit card information.

Sextortion is a form of sexual manipulation or blackmail in which fraudsters extort money from their victims in exchange for not sharing their explicit photos, nudes and videos online.

In October 2016, a British study found that 30% of all the world’s cases of sextortion emerge from Morocco, especially from the city of Oued Zem, which was labeled as the “capital of sextortion.”

Since 2012, “Scam Survivors”, an international support group for Internet victims, has had more than 14,000 people claim to be a victim of this form of extortion. Wayne May, director of the support group, claimed that these extortionists make between $500 and $700 a day.

According to a study by the Brookings Institutions of sextortion crimes in the United States, perpetrators were always male, with victims largely female and under the age of 18.